Conversations with Neil's Brain
The Neural Nature of Thought & Language
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
“You seldom get the chance to see a real human brain — at least, not while its language cortex is holding a conversation with you. And somehow remembering words, piecing them together into a sentence, picking and choosing which sentence to speak aloud and which to leave in the subconscious to gestate a little longer. A unique person emerges from all that — Neil, in this case.” — the narrator of Conversations with Neil’s Brain.
It’s a tour of the human cerebral cortex, conducted from the operating room, and has been on the New Scientist bestseller list of science books. It is suitable for biology, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience supplementary reading lists.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The Neil named in the title, identified as an engineer who became epileptic after fracturing his skull, undergoes brain surgery to remove part of his temporal lobe in the hope of eliminating his seizures. By stimulating his cerebral cortex, doctors map regions that control his memory, movement and his ability to use language. ``Neil'' is actually a composite of several epileptic patients, a device neurophysiologist Calvin and neurosurgeon Ojemann, both at the University of Washington, use to good effect, as they did in their earlier collaboration Inside the Brain. In a model of lucid scientific exposition, they scan recent research on memory, language and learning disabilities to explore links between brain damage and schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorders, sociopathic behavior and depression. Illustrating their points with far-ranging examples, the authors cite, among others, Virginia Woolf who, in her manic episodes, would talk almost without stopping for two or three days, and Woodrow Wilson whose strokes paralyzed his left side and gave him ``mild paranoia,'' leaving him unable to argue effectively for the League of Nations. Illustrations.
